Three out of every four Alabama public schools made 100 percent of their Adequate Yearly Progress goals, Alabama Superintendent of Education Joe Morton said this morning. But this 75 percent rate is a drop from last year's 86 percent, partly because the standards become more stringent each year.

"As the deadline of 2014 gets closer, the requirement of perfection gets closer," he said. "Having the requirement of No Child Left Behind that every student in America be proficient in reading and mathematics is very different that the goal (of) aspiring that every student hit that mark."

Birmingham metro school systems that failed to make adequate yearly progress include Bibb, Blount, Chilton, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair and Walker counties, as well as city systems in Bessemer, Birmingham, Fairfield and Pell City.